New event template
Date : Oct 15 Time : 8:00 am – 7:00 pm (America/New_York) Venue : Well& by Durst Date : Oct 15 Time : 8:00 am – 7:00 pm (America/New_York) Venue : Well& by Durst ALANYC August 5, 2026 1:27 pm Date : Oct 15 Time : 8:00 am – 7:00 pm (America/New_York) Venue : Well& by Durst Date : Oct 15 Time : 8:00 am – 7:00 pm (America/New_York) Venue : Well& by Durst ALANYC August 5, 2026 1:24 pm
Event Template Eight
Symposium – Eventin
Thursday, October 15, 20268:00 AM – 7:00 PM ET Well& by Durst151 W 42nd St, 4th FloorNew York, NY About Agenda Register Join us on Thursday, October 15, 2026, for the 21st Annual Educational Symposium & Expo as we take our profession to the Next Level. This year’s Symposium is centered around three guiding principles: Lead with Purpose. Grow with Confidence. Connect with Impact. These principles reflect the mindset today’s legal management professionals need to lead change, inspire their teams, and shape the future of their organizations. Designed for legal administrators and industry partners, the Symposium will feature engaging educational sessions across Finance, Human Resources, Legal Management, and Technology. Attendees will gain practical insights, innovative strategies, and real-world solutions ready to implement within their firms. Throughout the day, you’ll have opportunities to learn from industry experts, connect with peers and Business Partners, discover emerging trends, and exchange ideas that support both professional and organizational success. Whether you’re looking to develop or sharpen your leadership skills, embrace new technologies, build firm culture, or expand your professional network, you’ll leave the Symposium equipped to elevate your impact. This isn’t just another conference. It’s a chance to invest in your growth, advance your career, strengthen your firm, and help take our profession to the Next Level. Day hr Min Sec Symposium Oct 15 8:00 am – 8:45 am Breakfast & Registration Lobby 8:45 am – 9:00 am Welcome from President, Tirek Gayle Bryant Room Tirek Gayle MBA 8:45 am – 8:55 am Welcome from National Chapter President, Elyssa Goldstein Bryant Room Elyssa Goldstein CLM, PHR, SHRM-CP 9:00 am – 10:00 am Opening Keynote with Michelle Taylor-Willis Bryant Room Michelle Taylor-Willis 10:00 am – 10:50 am Business Partner Exhibit Hall; Break and Refreshments Lobby 10:50 am – 11:50 am LM | Your Greatest Asset: Emotional Intelligence when Leading Across Difference Today’s legal administrators lead diverse teams, collaborate across generations and functions, and navigate increasingly complex workplace dynamics to advance firm priorities. Success in this environment requires more than technical expertise—it demands emotional intelligence. The ability to recognize and manage emotions, while effectively responding to the unique perspectives and experiences of others, is the greatest leadership asset. This interactive session will invite participants to explore how emotional intelligence can strengthen their ability to lead across differences in communication styles, backgrounds, identities, experiences, and viewpoints. Through practical reflection, discussion, and real-world legal workplace scenarios, attendees will examine how self-awareness, empathy, emotional regulation, and relationship management contribute to stronger collaboration, trust, and inclusion. Participants will leave with actionable strategies for fostering more productive interactions, reducing misunderstandings, and creating environments where diverse perspectives can thrive and contribute to organizational success. Taris Mullins 10:50 am – 11:50 am IT | From Evaluation to Impact: A Practical Roadmap for Technology, Change Management & Firm Performance As firms navigate an increasingly complex legal technology landscape, success depends on more than selecting the right tools—it requires a disciplined approach to evaluation, change management, and performance tracking. This session provides a practical framework for assessing new solutions, aligning them with firm strategy, and ensuring successful adoption across administrative and support teams. Attendees will learn how to identify gaps in current processes, engage stakeholders effectively, and implement structured change management strategies that stick. The session will also introduce a performance roadmap and toolkit for measuring impact, improving accountability, and driving continuous improvement. By combining strategic insight with hands-on guidance, this session will equip legal administrators with actionable steps to turn technology investments into sustained operational and financial performance. Olivia Mockel 10:50 am – 11:50 am HR | Planning for the Day You Hope will Never Come: Understanding the Psychology of a Crisis Every day across the U.S and throughout the world we see news reports with graphic images of people who are survivors or victims of horrific traumatic events: wild-fires, flooding, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, bombings, riots/protests, or adults and children dealing with the aftermath of active shooter situations. And now, the aftermath of a global pandemic and political turmoil has changed our lives and turned our work environment, our law firms, and the economy upside down. But how often have we taken the time to really think about what happens to us as individuals when we experience traumatic or stressful events? Behavioral response to stressful incidents or crises and what is happening in the brain can be broken down into psychological stages that help to explain why individuals react in certain ways as they experience trauma. Given that in any law firm your most important assets are your people and your clients, this presentation will help everyone gain a better understanding of the “human factor” in a crisis. This knowledge will better prepare your firm and workforce for any situation that could affect your firm’s reputation. Kathryn Scourby 11:50 am – 1:30 pm Lunch & BP Networking Lobby 12:20 pm – 1:20 pm Labor Law Update Bryant Room Lunchtime session: Law firms invest in technology. Firm administrators are responsible for whether it actually works. The 2026 US Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report—drawing on data from 274 midsize US law firm professionals—shows that digital progress isn’t measured by the number of tools a firm has deployed. It’s measured by whether those tools reduce the administrative burden that drives burnout, turnover, and operational risk. This session is built for the people who carry that responsibility. We’ll look at what digital maturity means for firm administrators, how the connection between administrative burden and staff burnout is now quantifiable, and where the highest-impact opportunities to reduce friction already exist inside your firm, without adding complexity. Learn why digital maturity is a retention and governance issue, not just a technology roadmap, and how administrators are positioned to lead that conversation inside their firms. Understand how growth that outpaces operational infrastructure transfers its cost directly onto existing staff, and what operational readiness looks like before scaling headcount or practice areas. Concepcion Montoya 12:20 pm – 1:20 pm IT | Digital Maturity Starts with the People Running Your Firm (lunchtime